ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Institute of Health (NIH) announced on Sunday children between the ages of five and 12 had been made eligible to receive free coronavirus shots from any vaccination center in the country.
Pakistan launched its immunization drive against COVID-19 in February 2021, though the authorities limited the campaign to frontline health workers and elderly citizens since they were more vulnerable to the respiratory disease.
The country decided to extend the campaign to all the adult citizens within a few months, however, after the government started receiving continued supply of various COVID-19 vaccines and scrambled to protect a much larger segment of the population.
“Children aged 5-12 are now eligible for Coronavirus Vaccination,” a graphic shared by NIH on Twitter proclaimed. “It is free and available at all vaccination centers.”
It also urged people to get their children two vaccine doses, adding the second shot should be taken between 21 and 56 days.
Pakistan reported a COVID-19 positivity ratio of 0.61 percent after conducting 14,663 tests in the last 24 hours.
One person lost his life to the disease during the same period while 89 people were in critical care after contracting COVID-19.
Pakistan reported its first coronavirus case in February 2020. Subsequently, the authorities tried to bring the disease under control by launching the vaccination campaign and resorting to smart lockdowns.
